The flamethrower effect
On Friday night Donald Trump announced that he had agreed to debate Kamala Harris on Fox News on September 4th. There were a few problems with this, not the least of which is the fact that no such debate exists. Kamala Harris promptly called Trump out for being too afraid to go through with the real debate scheduled to take place on ABC News, and accused Trump of needing a “safe space” on Fox News.
It’s no exaggeration to say that Kamala Harris is taking a metaphorical flamethrower to Donald Trump. It’s one sick burn after another – and it’s working. For all Trump’s support among the dregs of society, the majority of Americans hate this guy, and they love seeing Trump having to face an opponent who can stick it to him like this. Kamala Harris is the perfect candidate to do this to Trump, at the perfect time. She’s nailing it, and he’s reeling badly.
It’s a sight to see. It’s also about time. It is worth pointing out that this approach has been tried before. Hillary Clinton periodically tried to take these kinds of flamethrower shots at Trump, but each time she did, the media (including liberal outlets) criticized her for it and said she was out of her element. Joe Biden managed to get away with taking a few of these kinds of well timed shots at Trump in 2020 (“Will you shut up man”) and the media allowed him to get away with it. But whenever Biden tried taking similar shots at Trump in 2024, the media panned it and said Biden was merely desperate.
But there’s something about the Kamala Harris revolution. It’s different. She has the momentum and everyone knows it. So when she takes a flamethrower to him, the media knows it can’t get away with panning her for it. Instead most of the media is playing into Harris’ attacks on Trump. A new hero emerges from hiding in plain sight and takes the fight directly to the villain. It’s a good story.
Kamala Harris is very wise for leaning into the “Trump slayer” role. She’s good at it, she knows she’s good at it, and she knows that this is (finally) an environment where the Democratic nominee can get away with taking this approach.
Here at Palmer Report I’ve been saying for nearly a decade that the most effective way to weaken someone like Donald Trump is to mock him as loudly as possible. If you talk about how dangerously powerful Trump is, you’re just unwittingly helping him to look unstoppable. But when you openly mock Trump for being fragile, weak, and weird, it takes the legs out from everything he’s trying to do. Kamala Harris is running this campaign exactly the way I would. You love to see it.
